borders in all time to come the blessings and benefits of a good education, "without money and without price." In no way can they contribute more effectually to the influence, reputation, and prosperity of our nascent state.

VIEWS OF "R" ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ANSWERED'

[August 22, 1846]

MESSRS. EDITORS: I have watched from time to time with much interest and pleasure what has appeared in your valuable paper from your correspondents in relation to the constitution of our future state. And as you have informed us that you lay their productions before your readers for what they are worth, without any responsibility on your part, I thought I might venture to give the opinion of one Whig, and perhaps more, by joining issue with the gentleman of Lisbon (Mr. R.) upon the subject of capital punishment. The gentleman in his first article speaks strongly in favor of capital punishment. He seems to be of the opinion that for the safety and well-being of the people of this flourishing territory we must stick to the system of hanging; and [he has] brought up one case which has come under his own observation to prove that there will be less crime committed in the country while we continue to hang men, than there would be, if we should cease to take that life which I believe God alone has a right to take. And now, sir, I cannot discover that the case cited proves anything very conclusively. For a man to say that he should not have done as he once did in a fit of drunkenness if he had known the consequences, should not, in my opinion, have the least weight. It is altogether probable if that man had not been drunk he never would have murdered his wife. I have never heard a case of that kind but what the murderer would testify that had it not been for the intoxicating dram, or had he been himself, the foul deed would

'For "R's" argument, here answered, see ante, 182.

never have been done. I would ask if it can be proved that by hanging men crime is to be lessened. I think the history of this country ever since the time of hanging witches (and not the history of this country alone either) plainly tells us that capital punishment does not, never has, nor ever will, lessen crime. But, sir, to take the pardoning power from the executive in cases that are now called capital, and then imprisonment where the culprit may be kept in safety till He who gave the life may see fit to take it from him, would be as safe to the community, crime would not increase, and the guilty [would be] less likely to go unpunished; and I may add there would not then be (as has many times been the case) an innocent man hung. I will say no more now, although I have said but little; I know there are many who can take hold of this subject ably and I hope to hear from them. Now is the time to speak out.

Milwaukee, August 20, 1846.

Yours, etc.,

T.

APPEALS TO FOREIGNERS

[August 14, 1846]

We observe that as the election draws nigh some of the more unscrupulous of the Locofoco presses are revamping many of the exploded falsehoods which they have hitherto circulated in regard to the principles and measures of the Whig party, and rely upon such means to secure a triumph in the coming contest. Among these inventions of the enemy the favorite one just now seems to be the charge that the Whigs, as a party, are opposed to granting the right of suffrage to foreigners, and upon this is founded an appeal to the Irish, German, and other immigrants to vote the regular Locofoco ticket, as the only means of securing to themselves equal rights and privileges under state government. Those who thus seek to array adopted citizens in a body on one or the other side of the dividing party lines are their very worst

enemies. And the pretext upon which the demagogues in the Locofoco ranks strive to do this is as false and unfounded as the object in view is selfish, reprehensible, and unpatriotic.

The Whigs, as a party, are cordially and unitedly in favor of extending the right of suffrage and every other civil and political right to all the citizens of Wisconsin, native or naturalized. Far from desiring to draw any line of distinction between the two classes, it is their earnest wish to see them placed on an equal footing so that, as years pass on, they may gradually become one people. Those who falsely represent to our adopted citizens that the Whigs are inimical to their rights and interests do so with a single eye to party advantage. The Locofoco leaders know full well that unless they can retain the united foreign vote on their side they must speedily lose their ascendancy, not in Wisconsin only, but all over the Union. Hence it is that they stoop to any artifice, however disreputable, to prevent adopted citizens from judging for themselves and dividing, as the native citizens do, upon the various political questions of the day, without regard to sect or birthplace.

It is an undisputed and undeniable fact that the large majority of American-born citizens are Whigs. Can any better prima facie evidence be required that the Whig policy is the true policy of the country? And does anyone doubt that if immigrants coming to this country, learning our language, adopting our sentiments, and accommodating themselves to our habits, should form their own deliberate opinions as to what policy to uphold and what party to join, a very large, if not the larger, proportion would side with the majority of those who, having always lived in the country, might be supposed best to understand what principles were most congenial to the spirit of our institutions and what measures were best calculated to advance the national welfare? Why, then, it may be asked, do we find the Germans, Irish, and other immigrants arrayed in mass on the Locofoco side? Simply because it is the constant and studied effort of the Locofoco leaders to make this class of our population believe that the

Whig party is hostile to their rights and would if they could deprive them of all voice and participation in the affairs of government.

The near approach of our territorial election has been made the signal for the renewal of these efforts at misrepresentation on the part of our opponents. That they will be to some extent successful in inducing our adopted citizens to band together under the Locofoco flag cannot be doubted. It must be the work of time to expose the falsehoods and dispel the delusions so industriously conjured up by our opponents. But truth will prevail in the end. The more intelligent among the German and Irish settlers already understand the game and rightly estimate the motives of the principal actors in it. Once satisfied that the Whig party is not inimical to them, they will disregard the earnest appeals of Locofoco leaders, and judge and decide on all questions of public policy upon their intrinsic merits, uninfluenced by any such narrow, illiberal considerations as are so constantly urged upon them by the organs of the Polk and Texas party. When they shall do this we do not doubt that the principles and measures advocated by the Whigs will commend themselves to their confidence and receive their enlightened and hearty support.

TACTICS OF THE ENEMY

[August 24, 1846]

The editor of the Madison Argus, a renegade Whig, is one of the Locofoco candidates for the convention in Dane County.

This circumstance seems to have stimulated afresh his zeal in behalf of his new associates and, like all turncoats, he is especially denunciatory towards those with whom he but recently acted. We esteem the Whig party especially fortunate in getting rid of all such soldiers of fortune, and we shall not quarrel with the editor of the Argus for deserting

to the enemy. But in adopting a new set of principles for himself he has no right to misrepresent and falsify those upheld by his former political friends. We find in the last Argus the following among other paragraphs aimed at the Whig party:

We care not what a mere handful of Whigs may find it convenient to profess. We know what are the principles of the party and we know that, give them the power, and they would saddle us with a batch of banks at the shortest notice, and that, once saddled, we should be ridden at their pleasure and for their profit-the whole Democratic party would instantly be under the ban of the bank power.

The effrontery of a charge like this would amaze us in anyone but a political turncoat. The fact is notorious that fivesixths of the banks in the United States were created by Locofoco legislatures. The old "monster" itself owed its existence to the party of which the Locofocos of the present day claim to be the legitimate heirs. When this institution was broken down some six hundred local banks, the offspring, for the most part, of Locofoco legislation, started up in its place. These institutions were not only made to subserve political purposes, but the very stock was distributed among the favored few of the party and no man was allowed to have a finger in a bank pie who did not swear allegiance to the Locofoco leaders. We venture to say that the whole history of our country will be searched in vain for such glaring instances of corruption, rascality, and abuse of power as are to be found broadcast in the Locofoco bank legislation during the eventful years of '34, '36, '37 and so on to 1840. And yet, with a full knowledge of all these facts, the Madison Argus falsely and impudently charges upon the Whig party the wrongs and robberies committed by its own political associates. No doubt the editor hopes by such gross and wilful misrepresentations to help himself in the coming canvass. But a victory won by inglorious means and dishonorable weapons will yield but a barren and short-lived triumph.